Aiming for the virtual
by EricLightscythe
Summary: One certain 'Grey Man' means a lot of trouble for the BLU team. Why? Because that 'Grey Man' is a hacker. And he just hacked onto the BLU database, hired by the REDs. The BLU sniper sets his scope on him... but taking him out is not so easy... nor do the REDs themselves know who he is...
1. Chapter 1: Numb

**A/N: This is my first fanfiction! So please, read and review! Hope you like it! Also, thanks to Jinny The Kisaragi who motivated me to do this!**

**The Grey Mann**

**A TF2 Fanfiction by **_**EricLightscythe**_

**Chapter 1: Numb**

**THE **BLU sniper grunted for the millionth time that day as he wiped off a snowflake off the lens of his scope. He shivered, from the unforgiving and freezing cold, and tightened the blankets around him. Today was definitely not a good day to snipe. But the current circumstances had forced him to do so.

Here, near some abandoned castle in the middle of nowhere, which the REDs had claimed as theirs, lay an abandoned, dilapidated guard tower that once upon a time had a roof. The sniper lay here, knee-deep in snow, his lower half of the body so cold, so numb; he felt it would shatter like glass. Or make that glass frozen in liquid nitrogen.

He had begun to wonder whether he should have gone for boar heads rather than human ones. Once upon a time, in Australia, his home, he had been a happy hunter. But then came war, which made him train his scope on humans. It had a high pay, yes, but he started to feel no amount of money was worth having himself frozen in this way. He had been lying there for hours, waiting for his quarry to turn up.

And it was his quarry who was the cause of all his problems. His target was a certain middle-aged man, who always wore a purple suit with grey stripes, who had successfully bypassed all the security the BLU info database could throw at him, and managed to hack into their 10-million worth supercomputer, and wiped almost all its data, no doubt storing another copy away for the RED team.

Here, under this frozen wasteland, lay an enormous cave system filled with Australium, the most sought-after mineral in the modern world. Unknown to the general public, known only to the most powerful men in the world, this mineral was the crux of power and money in the modern world. And this is what the bosses of the RED and BLU team were after. They used mercenaries or 'metal men' as they were also known, to decide who would take it all.

From god knows where, the RED higher-ups had managed to pull a hacker to do their dirty work. The data had backups, yes, but the REDS had stolen vital tactical information, the contents of which were known only to the BLU higher-ups. And that was now in the hands of the REDs. And they weren't ready to stop at that.

So that was the sniper's job: 'Take care' of the hacker.

According to his sources, the 'Grey Man' as they called him, was scheduled to come today to the RED base, in a grey pickup van. That was when the sniper wanted to strike.

The sound of an engine broke the sniper's thoughts. He looked into his scope. Through it, he saw a grey pickup van stop in front of the RED base. He grinned. This was too easy, he thought. The Grey Man was clearly visible. How wrong he was. He steadied his scope, aimed his crosshairs at the Grey Man's temple, and was about to pull the trigger-

And out of nowhere a cat suddenly jumped straight into the sniper's face, causing him to lose the crucial moment. He was so enraged; he threw the poor cat out of the window. Maybe it wanted to snuggle in the blankets. Or maybe taste the Jarate. Eww.

The sniper sighed and picked up his scope. By now, the Grey Man had vanished inside the RED base. Still, the sniper waited, hoping to get a chance. And he was rewarded for his patience. One of the rooms had a large glass pane through which his target was clearly visible, hunched over a small laptop on a table, talking to the RED soldier. He, grinned, muttered a prayer, and fired.

However, the glass pane turned out to be bulletproof. It shattered into thousands of pieces that looked like snowfall, except that it glittered, even through the poor visibility due to the snowstorm. The hacker, momentarily shocked but unharmed, ran out of that room. Needless to say, the occupants of that room had vanished... and the full base was on high alert.

Cursing his stupidity not to think of a bulletproof glass pane, he picked up his things and ran out of the tower. He wasn't worried about any RED mercenary coming to kill him, for he could easily see them and snipe them from this distance. He was worried about the RED spy, who could turn invisible.

As he ran out he saw the RED scout running towards him at full speed, baseball bat in hand. He stood at one side of the door, ready to surprise the scout when he came in. When he heard the scout's rapid footsteps coming close, he pulled his Kukri and held it at neck level, in the doorway. All that can be said is that he severed the scout's brain connection.

The sniper said with satisfaction, "Din't think Oi'd stick me knoife out, eh, Bonkhead?"

Cleaning his Kukri in the snow, he ran out of the tower. He ran, ran and ran like he never had. He paused, gasping for breath, and glanced behind him, he saw a patch of snow floating seemingly in midair, with footsteps leading up to it. It was the RED spy; invisible, unaware of what gave him away! Sniper realized this, and hatched a plan to take him out. He acted as if he hadn't seen anything, and turned around. When he was certain the spy was within a meter of him, he turned around and threw his Kukri exactly where he knew the spy was standing. The Kukri embedded itself in the spy's body. Blood spurted as if from midair. The spy, materializing into view, gave a groan of agony as he pulled the lethal Kukri out from him, dropped onto his knees, and managed to stutter some unintelligible words, and dropped face-down into the cold snow, now dyed with red. Saluting his fallen enemy, and cleaning his Kukri once again, he ran towards where he had parked his RV in a clump of trees, and zoomed off towards the BLU base.


	2. Chapter 2: Unfair!

**A/N: Sorry for taking such a ridiculously long time to update! The thing is, I had exams and such, so I really didn't get time to update…..**

**Thanks, all of you who have reviewed my first chapter! Also, I just want to say, that unless I mention as RED, all class names are referred to as the BLU team.**

**ENJOY!**

The Sniper relaxed as he approached the familiar façade of the BLU base. As usual, he parked it in the courtyard. He was pissed at himself for the failed attempt, but he promised himself that he would get the hacker next time. As he got out of his RV, his fellow teammates came to greet him. He quietly surveyed them. The Scout, hyper as usual. The Soldier, who gave him a quick salute which he returned. The Pyro, who was playing with his lighter, waved at him. The Demoman, drunk as usual, slurred something and grinned. The Heavy, chomping down another 'sandvich' gave him the thumbs-up. The engineer tossed his wrench up and down, grinned at him. The Medic waved. And the mysterious Spy, who gave him a quick nod.

The Engineer asked him, "Glad to see you back safe. How did it go?" but then looked at his grumpy face and frowned. "Vat happened, mon ami?" asked the spy. Sniper replied, "Oi failed. Dun' ask." And went in the base to grab himself some hot coffee and buns, his favorite snack. The rest of the team followed his suite. The scout, soldier, pyro, demo and heavy to the rec room to play cards, the engie to his workshop, the medic to the Med bay and the spy to Sniper's van. Both of them, spy and Sniper, preferred solitude and quiet, were always in the Sniper's RV, which was considerably less noisy than the base.

The Sniper, holding a hot coffee thermos flask and buns entered his RV and nodded at the spy. The spy had turned on the radio and was listening to some calming French instrumental. The Sniper didn't mind. The Sniper asked, "What happened when I was gone?" The spy looked up from his cigarette case and grinned, and replied, "Thee scout got into anozzer fight with heavy." The Sniper grinned at this and said, "What did he do this time? Accuse heavy of cheating at cards or adding crit-a-cola to his coffee?

Spy chortled and replied, "He touched Sasha. Have I said enough?" The Sniper smiled and said, "It was probably fun, wasn't it? ". "Ja, it vas" replied the medic, who had entered the van, holding a small med-kit. "Heavy chased ze scout all over ze base. It vas fun to vatch." He replied. He opened his med-kit and asked Sniper, "Are you feeling fine, Sniper? It eez very cold outside." The Sniper nodded, but the medic still took a general check-up. He checked his pulse and temperature. He said, "All eez fine, though you may catch a slight cold and fever. I vant you to take these medicines every day after ze lunch, or I vill give you shots." He said, holding a large syringe. Sniper sputtered his coffee and said, "Geez, Medic, I will." The spy and medic laughed heartily, and the Sniper joined in. He felt as if he had gotten over his frustration.

MEANWHILE

Location unknown

The Grey Man roared in frustration at the RED bosses. "HOW THE -bleep- DID THEY FIND OUT? HOW?!"

One replied, "Do not worry my friend. You are safe."

The Grey Man replied, "DO NOT WORRY? DO NOT WORRY?! I HAVE A MERC AFTER MY HEAD AND YOU TELL ME DON'T WORRY?! KILL HIM!"

"We cannot and you know that very well."

"THEN WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?"

"We will ensure that….. aha…. we take their minds off things….."

The red bosses gave the Grey Man nods, indicating he was dismissed. The Grey Man huffed, grabbed his briefcase and set out.

One of the RED bosses picked up a phone, and said, "Connect me to the Administrator."

The Scout yawned, stretched and scratched his head. He looked at the clock. It was 5:00 am. He had woken up, for once, without an alarm. He brushed, grabbed his bat and ball and went to the kitchen, stomach groaning in protest to his empty stomach. The Engineer was there, and making some bacon. He greeted the Scout.

"'Mornin, Scout. Up early, eh? Well, nobody else, is."

Scout asked, "Cookin' something?"

"Hell yeah, special Texan spice Bacon comin' righ' up!"

"Can't wait, hardhat!"

The Engineer served Scout some Bacon and ruffled his hair. "Eat up, son."

The Engineer was somewhat of a fatherly figure to the Scout. Scout had never received a father's care, for his was a drunkard and left him, his mom and his brothers and sister and ran off with an equally drunken woman. To the Engineer, the Scout reminded him of his son, who was now in college.

The Scout eagerly dug in the greasy and spicy bacon. It was exquisite. The spice awakened his taste buds and set them savoring the taste.

By Eight A.M , all the mercenaries had woken up and had their breakfasts. It was Sunday, so by their standards, it was considered late.

When everyone stood up to leave the kitchen, the Administrator's commanding voice blasted from the speakers, "All BLU mercenaries, immediately report to the conference hall."

All nine mercenaries went there and seated themselves. The Spy switched on the projector, adjusted its focus until the Administrator's rather worried face shone on the screen.

"Good morning, BLU team. I have some news for you. You shall be battling the REDs tomorrow, however, there is small problem…."

The BLU team gulped.

"Remember that prototype overpower weapon shipments I had informed you about? Well, they have arrived. That is to say, they have arrived for the REDs, but your Underailable shipment train…. Well, derailed and crashed."

The BLU team realized why she was worried.

Demo belched. "So yer sayin'….."

Medic gulped. "That ve haff to battle zhe REDs…"

Spy finished. "With mon meazly leetle guns…"

Scout wailed. "WHEN THEY HAVE FREAKIN' EPIC SHITLOADS OF FIREPOWA?!"

The Administrator nodded, and terminated the connection.

Scout said, "Brilliant. Now we're screwed. " And walked off. Sniper agreed, "Yeh we are." And followed him out.

THE NEXT DAY

As usual, Soldier banged on their doors at 6:00am sharp with his dented Frying Pan, made them jog around the training ground 10 times, wash up and then settle down for breakfast. They barely had any appetite, as they were thinking about the following battle. Time inevitably passes, and ultimately, at 10:00am, they stood ready in the resupply room. They had determination written in their faces, but their eyes told quite a different story.

A minute later, the Administrator's voice boomed, "Mission begins in 10 seconds."

They all gulped.

"Mission begins in 3 seconds."

They started sweating.

"START FIGHTING NOW!"

This time, it was only the Soldier who gave a battle cry and rushed out. A loud explosion was heard, and an arm holding a frying pan flew back in the room.

Scout said, "Yeah. I knew it. Solly's mad."

The Administrator's voice boomed, "GET OUT OF THE RESPAWN ROOM NOW!"

They all reluctantly gave half-hearted battle cries, or rather squeaks, and ran out of the room.

Out of the 8 that rushed out, 4 were sent back to respawn when they went in the same way Soldier did.

When they respawned, they all shouted about a sentry gun that had miniguns as arms and an oversize rocket launcher as a head, a flamethrower that had a really big range, a grenade launcher that shot out grenades like a machine gun and an ubercharged heavy(So quickly?) who pushed around a XXXL sized Minigun on a cart(Minigun? Really appropriate name.) and a Scout that ran so fast you could barely see him.

They ran out in different directions, firing useless weapons at their overpowered enemies. It seemed like throwing paperballs at brick walls. Moments later, the other leftover mercenaries respawned and screamed and swore about a Rocket 10 times bigger than the normal ones, a Sniper using a Mechanical crossbow, a Spy with a silent cloaking device and how their butts hurt.

It went on like this. The BLU team barely made it 10 meters pass the respawn room. Needless to say, the RED team won.

After the battle, and after a very humiliating series of catcalls, boos and bombs from the REDS, and after a long lecture about how the BLU team couldn't defeat the 'commies' even though he made them jog 10 rounds in the morning (Does that even make a difference? Seriously, Solly?) they finally collapsed onto the sofas in the rec room.

Nobody talked about the game. They kept praying for their supply train to come. If it didn't come soon, it could be a really, really, long week.

**A/n: Yeh, so that's it! Hope you liked it! I'm planning on starting another series parallel to this, from the perspective of the RED team! That will be like more story, less battle, like, say, a side dish to this one! This will be more story oriented. I will try to make the existing, and forthcoming ones more detailed and colorful! :D**

***wink***


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